Just a suggestion, which I'm guessing a lot of you would hate ... but ..

could we have a thread here dedicated to people who want to leave for some reason, like a bulletin board, and to tell us when people have been deactivated.

I'm sort of envisioning the end of "i'm leaving" threads on general discussion (ie they get deleted) and a place where I can look up who's been deactivated, cos I always seem to be the last to know.

first sex talk and now deactivation/goodbye threads? what WILL we post about in the GD?

AaronUniversal said:

The goodbye threads really irritate me ... the only thing worse than someone leaving in a huff only to reappear a week later is someone who feels the need to say goodbye because they're not going to be online for a day or two

Raspberry said:

i like the ones by people you don't a) know or b) even recall seeing around

I'm not too keen on that idea, to be honest.

Account deactivation is frequently only a temporary measure - we don't do it to punish people, we do it to stop people posting temporarily, until a matter is resolved between the moderation staff and the user in question. Example: a person posts multiple messages asking for bootlegs despite warnings from mods, so the account is deactivated until the user is made aware of the rules and agrees to adhere to the rule regarding bootlegs etc.

Since it is usually just temporary and quickly resolved, there really is no point in making announcements. We very rarely ever have to remove someone from the site on a more long-term basis, and if we do, the user usually departs under a "dark cloud" anyway so there is no room for friendly frivolities such as "goodbye threads".

If anything, making announcements about deactivations make it even more difficult and time consuming for us to get the matter resolved. It certainly makes our job more difficult. You know, we'd get dozens of messages saying "oh he's my friend and he's really great, you are a bad man for deactivating him!" etc from people who only have half the story. So I really don't see the value of making the process more public, because it is better handled quickly and quietly to minimize disruption and attain a speedy resolution.

As for goodbye threads for people who want to leave... I don't know about everyone else, but I find them irritating. People who REALLY want to leave will just leave, and orgnote their friends to let them know. The people who make a big song and dance about it are usually just attention seekers and they are posting again under a new alias within hours. Just my opinion.

AaronUniversal said:

... me too!!!

ian said:

Understood ... I guess I'll just have to watch the boards more closely so I can get a better grip of what's going on

ian said:

Totally agree with you Ian.

Kiren, get away from Ian, your all mine.

2freaky4church1 said:

I agree 100% with Ian, in case anyone wondered where I stand on this...

ben said:

Who're you? Didn't you say goodbye last week ?

ian said:

If they want to be ingrates and leave, then don't let the door hit their bony asses on the way out the door.